Phoenicia Flea is a curated market of makers & merchants from the Catskills, Hudson Valley and beyond.

Looking forward to seeing you!

This year we decided to do things differently for the holiday season.We thought that better then assembling yet another gift set for you to buy... how great if you can give someone a truly memorable gift this year.

from a Pickle Party to ring in the new year to a Moroccan Doughnut workshop in Hannuka, we put together a full list of fun events and classes we will be hosting!

Have a fabulous holiday weekend, we are certainly grateful for each and every one of you for your continuous love and support.

Ron and Leetal

XO

Change is hard.

But a necessary step in our constant evolution.

We were lucky enough to understand early on that growth is inevitable but evolution is a choice.

Our logo and packaging is a visual representation of more than just who we are, but a stage of our growth.

We decided that New York Shuk is due for a change. As we constantly evolve, grow and shape our-self it was time for our brand to evolve with us to reflect where we are at now- 'New York Shuk circa 2016'.

For the past 10 months we been working on our second step in our brand evolution.

With every iteration we will always stay true to what we stand for- keeping our culinary traditions alive by creating high quality Middle Eastern pantry staples for you to create these authentic flavors in your own home for your family.

NYSHUK first logo.

New York Shuk circa 2016.

and..

On October 7 we are officially launching our new look AND our new flavor; HARISSA WITH PRESERVED LEMON. Part of a full on Harissa collection which will be complete with 3 additional Harissa products by the end of 2016.

We value your constant support and want to offer you a specialpre-order price as a token of our appreciation.

GET 25% OFF AND FLAT RATESHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS MADEBY SEPTEMBER 30.

‘New York Shuk’ invites you to Celebrate NY firstCouscous Week with the city’s finest restaurants.

This year we have been invited to participate in the international couscous competition happening in Sicily later this month. To celebrate all things couscous we are launching the first ever NY couscous week.

During September 5-12 we are collaborating with some of NY’s favorite spots; from a Michelin star restaurant to neighborhood favorites, from Brooklyn to Manhattan, chefs were asked to show creativity and use New York Shuk hand rolled couscous to create a unique take of their own.

Shalom Japan steak & couscous dish. Photo by Maria Midoes

During Couscous week, you can enjoy real, fresh, New York Shuk couscous at the following places:

Baccarat Hotel The team of chefs at Baccarat Hotel will be serving couscous with Maine Lobster Salad, cauliflower, walnut and maple caviar vinaigrette.

CLASSES

As part of the couscous week program, New York Shuk will be teaching two cooking classes focused on The Art of Couscous. Learn all about the techniques behind making couscous from scratch.More details about the class can be found HERE.

For those who won’t be able to attend the classes, Ron will demonstrate live how to make couscous on 'Instagram stories'. Sharing the tricks of making couscous at home without a steamer or a sieve. Follow us on Instagram.

Ron couscousing. Photo: Najwa Kronfel

THE ART OF COUSCOUS

For us couscous is a symbol of culinary craftsmanship. A labor-intensive process of Semolina and water that’s rolled together to form tiny granules of couscous. Unfortunately, the art of couscous making was lost to the processed instant couscous. Our goal at New York Shuk is to keep the tradition alive and give you the opportunity to experience those lost artistry rituals.

By hosting New York's first Couscous week we are hoping to give you a chance to experience couscous as it should be, made by hand not from a box.

We hope you have a chance to join in,

Ron & Leetal

x

P.S. Don't forget to hashtag #couscousweek

It’s been fun seeing how shashuka has been gaining momentum around New York menus, Instagram feeds and just about everywhere else.

There’s something very comforting about this dish, but it’s the fact that you can whip it up so quickly for brunch, lunch or dinner that I think makes this dish so attractive. Well, besides the flavor of course.

Tomato season might just be around the corner but it was important for me to give you a simple recipe you can use all year around so I used canned tomatoes. Feel free to swap for fresh while you can.

I'm hoping to go into more details about the origin of shakshuka and other alternatives forthis special dish-but for now, enjoy this simple take!

Ingredients:

15 garlic cloves, peeled & sliced

5 tbsp. sunflower oil

3lb diced tomatoes (with the liquid from the can)

Salt to taste

6 eggs

In a large frying pan place the garlic and oil and cook on medium heat until the garlic soften but remain light in color. Mix as you go. Add the tomatoes and harissa. simmer until tomatoes have thickened. Add salt to taste. This stage should take you about 15 minutes. If you are not in a hurry you can keep cooking the tomatoes on low heat (up to an hour). Gently crack eggs into frying pan over tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and cover with a lid. I like my egg extra runny so I only cook them for approx. 4 minutes but if you like them more firm keep cooking for an extra 4 minutes. Serve in the pan, preferably with fresh bread on the side.

Enjoy.

I am thrilled to share with you that we are starting a new series of curated events where we will be collaborating with some of our favorite ladies in the food world. Homa, founder of The White Moustache, will co-host our first dinner. Homa makes yogurt like you NEVER tasted before and we couldn’t be more excited to work together and bring you our take on a Persian feast celebrating the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Let the fun begin.

Have a great weekend y'all,

Ron & Leetal

xx

We got some awesome news to share with you. The past few months we been working hard to find ways for us to lower our prices so you can have more Harissa in your pantry.

Its been one of our goals from the get go, we just didn’t realize it will be such a challenge. Being two stubborn Israelis we were determined to find a way for you to enjoy our product, no excuses.

Having a small business, you realize there are way more challenges then those ‘yay! I work for myself’ moments. So we cherish these little wins with everything that we got and glad we can share them with you.

Happy Hanukkah!

Ron & Leetal

x

I love fall.

I love fall in New York.It always exceeds expectations in its beauty-and that right there is magic for me.

We decided to hit the pause button on our daily routine and head out.We drove up to the Catskills to enjoy the colors in their full glory.We had such a great time that I wanted to share with you all theplaces we've been to.Also, a simple vegetable soup recipe that we cooked in our cabin with the freshest farmers market haul we could get our hands on.This recipe will help you embrace those cold nightscoming our way with a smile on your face.

Scroll all the way down to get the complete low-down of where to stay, eat & what to buy....

Leetal

xx

Indian yellow birch.

Burnet orange maple.

Ruby redsassafras.

Purplishmaroonoak

QUICK TRAVEL TIP:

1. Travel with your jar of Harissa and L'ekama for guaranteed easy dinners.

2. Marinade the following:

Mix, grill and serve with a nice big salad or anything else that strikes your fancy.

The where & what

I came across most of the info through a perfectly illustrated guide to Ulster county from Design Sponge- so make sure to check it out to get more info and recommendations.

SLEEP

This airbnb was exactly what the doctor prescribed. A well-kept charming wooden cabin, surrounded by the tranquility sounds of a back yard stream.

EAT

If you know us by now, you would know that we rather enjoy a meal at home over eating out. When we travel it is no different. We stopped at few of the farmers market on the way and got some groceries to enjoy at our cabin. Breakfast consisted of fresh bread from Bread Alone, local cheeses we got at Sunfrost Farms, fresh vegetables from Woodstock farmers market and the best smoked trout I ever had from the Migliorelli stand. For dinner one night we put together this one pot vegetable soup and the other night we marinated a few pieces of chicken and threw them on the outdoor grill.(scroll to the top to get the recipe for that)

We did want to try Phoenicia Diner which was just few minutes away from our cabin, next time around perhaps.

BUY

I'm sucker for all things vintage/reclaimed. Zaborski Emporium made me feel like a kid in a candy store. Wish we had more time to explore all floors.

The thrift store at The Tibetan Center is another gem of a store we stop at whenever we are up state.

At Westwind Orchard, we bumped into Fabio, one of the owners of a beautiful historic orchard. We missed the apple picking days but Fabio was kind enough to let us walk around the orchard and open their small beautiful shop for us. Apple cider vinegar, chili chocolate and maple syrup were only some of the gems we got to take home with us.

FOR YOUR SOUL

By far one of those places you feel that feeds your soul while you walking around in between giant outdoor sculptures. Do yourself a favor and add Storm King Art Center to your ‘must visit’ list.

We spilled the beans about our favorite eats in New York, essential pantry items, guilty pleasures and more. Oh, and our recipe for stuffed onions! so make sure to head over to Pantry Confidential for a read, or just to get a peek of our kitchen.

It even gets more exciting then that, we are offering a special giveaway; dinner for 2 at our home(!!!). This wont be just any meal- you are guaranteed a feast for the senses.

For your chance to win, please follow both @nyshuk and @pantryconf on Instagram and show us your favorite spice and/or how you use it. Tag us in your photo(s) and don't forget to include the hashtag: #dinnerwithnyshuk. We will choose our favorite picture. Deadline is Monday, Nov. 23. Good luck!

P.S. We now have a manifesto! I'm sure its gonna evolve along the way, but we got to start somewhere. Don't know about you, but that makes me happy.

Pause. Reflect. Gratitude.

We are – each of us – the sum of all of life’s tables around which we have sat.Today, we are grateful for the table we share with you.

This year we are here to celebrate the ‘right now’

“Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be.Don’t think that you’ve lost time. It took each and every situation you have encounteredto bring you to the now. and now is right on time.” ( Asha Tyson )

To our and yours ‘right now’.

Shana Tova and lots of love,

Ron and Leetal

P.S. In other exciting news, we are on the search for a all-round awesome personto join our team and help us grow our business.Read more about what we are looking for and send some good people our way.

For those of you who follow us on instagram you might have noticed that we’ve been posting quite a bit from Israel in the past 2 weeks.

Our trip is coming to an end and lucky for you, we brought an extra large suitcase and are looking to fill it up with snacks, food mementos and keepsakes that can only be found in Israel. We will assemble a special 'NYshuk Secret Package'.

The packages are limited to 15- the suitcase isn’t that big- and we'll ship the packages in June when we return to NY. They are going fast, so order yours ASAP or get one for a friend- the ideal gift for those die hard foodie fans in your life.

Life is full of surprises and we say the more the merrier!

Imagine an open-air seaside fish market with a picturesque waterfront. The fisherman with their boats coming right up to the pier selling their morning catch. The salty breeze.

Well, this ain’t that.

The Fulton Fish market is located in Hunts Point, an industrial part of the Bronx. It was relocated from its historical location in Lower Manhattan in 2005. The increasing value of Manhattan real estate was just one of the reasons it was forced to leave the east river waterfront.

History aside, the market is now second in size worldwide after Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji market. Catering mostly to the wholesale crowd.

While the current Fulton fish market is lacking the charm it compensates with an amazing variety of the freshest fish in the city. This remarkable variety makes you wonder why every restaurant in NY serves mostly Branzino on their menus.

The vendors at the market don’t get many private customers, mostly due to the fact that it’s only open during the small hours of the night. They are exceptionally friendly and appreciative to the ones that do come that extra mile.

When planning your seafood summer BBQ shindig make sure you come here!(and try our recipe for Monkfish Shawarma while you at it)

Today is Israel’s Independence Day.If there was a dish that could sum up where we are at,on our culinary journey then this dish would be it.We are proud to share it with you on this special day!

2 years ago we designated a shoebox for new ideas.We decided that every time we have an idea about a new dish, a new product, a flavor combination we like or just come across anything that inspires us, we will write it down and in it goes to the box.The box lasted 3 weeks.Few notes did accumulate during those 3 weeks. One note had Monkfish Shawarma on it. We knew it had to happen. An overdue trip to the Fulton Fish Market was the perfect excuse to bring our idea from paper to plate.

This dish has so much flavor that you will find it hard to believe it consist of only 5 ingredients; Monkfish, L’ekema, onions, oil and salt. Every ingredient plays a crucial role. Monkfish with its wonderful meatiness, L’ekema for bringing the Middle Eastern flavors we love so much, onions with their rich sweetness, oil to make sure it will be caramelized to perfection and salt to bring it all together.

Maybe its time to bring back the shoebox.

Happy 67th Birthday, Israel.

XO

Ron and Leetal

Charoset.

Every Jewish community of the world has their own version of this symbolic Passover food. A quick look online on the topic of Charoset and as with all ‘jewish food’ you are left baffled. The common thread between them all is the use of fruit and nuts.

As tasty as Charoset is, and it is! (what can be wrong with a combo of dried fruit, nuts, spices, wine, juice or whatever your charoset may include??)It could use, however, a slight upgrade on the presentation front. Rolling the mixture into ‘charoset truffles’ coated with chopped walnuts worked as a charm for me.

Our Tanzeya is the base for this super simple (only 5 ingredients!) dried fruit & nut spread. The slivovitz helps balance the sweetness but feel free to replace it with another brandy you might have on hand.

Treat your host this Passover with a jar or two of our Tanzeya. Order today and we guarantee delivery in time for your holiday table.

Chag sameach,

Ron & Leetal

xo

Charoset Truffles

½ Granny smith apple, grated

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. slivovitz (plum brandy)

more chopped walnuts for rolling

1. Finely chop the Tanzeya and mix well with the rest of the ingredients. 2. Refrigerate for about 1 hour, so it will be easier to roll.3. Remove the mixture from the refrigerator and shape into balls by rolling between the palms of your hands. (Shape the mixture into a little less then one-inch balls.)4. Then place the balls into a dish with the rest of the chopped walnuts. Move the charoset truffles in order to coat all around with nuts. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Secrets.

Every family has them.

This is ours.

Well, up until now.

All recipes have a way of traveling the globe, evolving in each and every stop along the way. I guess the beauty of a GREAT recipe is just how well it has travelled and how those ‘stops’ along the way have shaped it.

58 years ago my Turkish grandmother was handed a recipe from a Polish neighbor who lived across the road from her. Her name was Manya and her family used to own a catering company back in Poland, where she would serve these specialty cakes. My grandmother was lucky to be taught how to perfect this recipe; A sweet yeast dough filled with a moist honeyed poppy seed paste, then rolled to form a glorious cake recipe.

A staple in our house ever since.

Purim is coming up, a Jewish holiday where eating poppy seed filled pastries is a tradition(at least in my books) and giving out 'mishloach manot' (gifts to friends and neighbors) is customary, it’s the perfect time to be sharing with you this special family recipe.

Enjoy it. Make it yours. Pass it on.

Manya’s poppy seed roll

Ingredients for 4 loaf

cake pans, 26 cm:

300ml milk

5 eggs

¾ cup sugar

300g soft butter

50g fresh yeast

1 kg flour

pinch salt

Filling-

2 cups milk

1.5 cups sugar

½ cup honey

500g freshly ground poppy seed

60g butter

Lemon zest from 2 lemons

½ cup golden raisins

4 tbsps. Crushed cookies/bread crumbs

Prepare the dough a day in advance.

Using the dough hook on your stand mixer; mix the milk, eggs, sugar, yeast and flour on low speed for 3 minutes, until the dough comes together. Add the soft butter and salt and continue to mix for 2 minutes until incorporated. Increase to high speed and let the mixer work for an additional 8 minutes.

Place in a lightly floured bowl, and cover the dough with a plastic bag and a kitchen towel over night in the fridge.

For the filling- boil the milk, sugar and honey, add the poppy seed and continue to stir on low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir inside the butter, lemon zest, raisins and crumbs.

Let cool completely.

On a floured surface, remove the dough from the bowl and divide to 4 pieces.Roll out each piece, to a 0.5cm thickness circle. Spread 5 tbsps. of the filling and roll. Place in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle poppy seed for garnish. Let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

To celebrate this small win for our customers, every order we receive today until Monday morning will get an extra something special from us.

Happy Friday,

x

Ron & Leetal

We love Hanukkah.Any holiday that suggest you eat doughnuts, is a holiday we like. For us Hanukkah is an informal holiday, one where no sit down dinners are necessary just an excuse to gather family and friends while eating latkes, doughnuts and lighting the menorah. This year we were lucky enough to host our closest friends and family in our new home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

There’s nothing like bonding over bad food.We met Shino and Christine over unripe figs, overly salted fish and bad chocolate. This was clearly a start of an unexpected connection.

We all run small businesses, Shino is one talented ceramicist and Christine is a badass photographer (and by now I hope you know what we do).Running a business means that the rush of creativity of which made you start your business in the first place gets lost amongst…reality.

That was when the four of us decided to pack our bags (and some couscous) and head out of the city! The mission: to have fun and eat couscous. Baking bread over ashes, going on a hike with an axe and a pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke sculptures in the forest were just part of our idea of fun.

We hope these pictures will inspire YOU to get out there and have some fun…. (ok, and inspire you to have some hand rolled couscous)

xo

Ron & Leetal

PS. Shino has kindly made us 20 truly one of a kind spoons. we will be selling them with a trio of our products this holiday season. Head over to our shop to snatch yourself this limited edition gift.

We have been lucky to be chosen by Food & Wine magazine as part of their Best American Artisans series. That is a big big..HUGE honor for us!Liza of food. curated spent the day with us to get a glimpse as to how and why we make our Harissa. Click on the picture below and it will take you straight to our Harissa page where you can watch what she captured so beautifuly.

(if you are not familiar with her work yet, make sure you check her out- her videos are addictive)

screenshot from Food &Wine website

All things couscous...

Make sure you keep on eye out for our new couscous page coming up next week, we are so excited to share it with you. Finally, all your questions about couscous will be answered. Until then, here are 3 things you don't know about couscous from yours truly as written in Food & Wine expert guide.

Upcoming classes alert!

We have few classes scheduled at Havens Kitchen and at Whole Foods Bowery culinary center.We will be teaching The Art of Couscous Making and a special class 'All About Harissa'.This class, a first of its kind, is dedicated solely in showing you the best and varied ways to use Harissa.Once you learn how to use this magical ingredient to get that special oomph in your cookingit will really be your secret weapon :)

We want to share with you a fun recipe!

The morrocan name for it is ‘kwari bilbeid’ but we just call it by the simple name of ‘Surprise Meatballs’. Truth be told, when hearing about this dish for the first time I wasn’t really sure about the addition of an egg in my meatballs. But when something works, you just don’t ask any questions!a perfect comfort dish for winter days. Enjoy!

For Tomato sauce:

1. Tomato sauce- sauté garlic with oil in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes, making sure you closely watch the garlic so it doesn’t burn. Add the Harissa while continuing to cook and mix for another minute. Add the tomatoes and season with salt. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Boil a pot of water and cook the quail eggs for 4 minutes. Peel them and set aside.

3. Meatballs- soak the white bread in water, squeeze the liquid out and grate. In a bowl knead well the meat, bread, egg, spices and Harissa. Gently roll meat mixture into 16 equal-sized balls. Place 1 quail egg in the center of each meat portion and gently shape into balls. Place in the tomato sauce and cook for 15 minutes until meatballs are fully cooked.

4. If you feel like going the extra mile, I like to serve it with thinly sliced fried garlic, a nice crunchy element. (it's just as tasty without). Serve over rice, couscous or just with a nice piece of fresh bread.

Before we get to the recipe we promised to deliver...

Also, a reminder that our offer for a free Tanzeya with any purchase ends tonight (September 15, 2014 at 11:59 EST). So if you are still looking to splurge yourself, your kids or in need of a hostess gift for Rosh Hashanah- well, just head over to our shop.

Wherever you find yourself this holiday,here’s wishing you a peaceful, joyful and a sweet sweet year,

Ron and Leetal

Dovshaniut

Now, as promised here is the recipe for our favorite honey cookies, "Duvshaniut". They are moist, full of spices and sweet. Everything you need to start your year on the perfect note.

Give them to friends as presents to wish them a Happy New Year, or serve them with a glass of mint tea at the end of your Rosh Hashanah dinner. Either way, you are sure to please friends and family.

Ingredients (for 18 cookies):

90g Honey

60g Muscovado sugar

1/8 tsp. ground clove

3/4 tsp. ground mahlab*

1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

¼ tsp. ground all spice

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 large egg, room temp (55g)

210g AP flour

10g baking powder

Frosting:

100g powder sugar

2 tbsp. milk

In a small bowl mix the spices. Feel free to use more or less of those spices you like best, for me this mixture is the perfect balance of ‘fall spices’.

preheat oven to 365.In a small pot place the honey, sugar and the spice mixture, using a whisk mix well. Once boiled, add the baking soda and whisk until the mixture is light and frothy. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool for 5 minutes then whisk the egg into the mixture. Mix the flour and baking powder and then using a wooden spoon stir the flour into the mixture. With wet hands, form balls.Bake for 10 minutes (turn the tray after 5 for even coloring). Place on a cooling rack.

Frosting:

Whisk the powdered sugar with the milk until you get a smooth mixture.Dip each cookie into the sugar coating and let drip onto the cooling rack.The cookies will form a crackly sugar exterior that is fun to bite into and will also help keep the cookies moist inside.

Place cookies in an airtight container.

* Mahlab is the inner seed inside a cherry pit and has the flavor and aroma that resembles bitter almond. It is used in small quantities and sharpens the sweet flavors in baked goods. A spice that is very common in Middle Eastern baking and I like using it in many recipes whether Middle Eastern or not.

** You might have noticed that the recipe doesn’t have any oil or butter in it (!!!). My initial recipe did call for some oil, fortunately, I forgot to add and the results were very surprising (surprising in a really GOOD way) so I decided to omit the oil from the recipe.